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No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man—Heraclitus Militancy convulsed Punjab from roughly 1984 to 1994. Afterwards, politicians, government spokespersons and assorted intellectuals declared that ‘Khalistan’ was gone and the state was ‘returning to normalcy’ as though the state would suddenly find itself in some pleasant place of bygone era. But that is far from the truth.In reality, when the gunfire ceased, 10 years of turmoil left lasting scars and chronic afflictions. Reduced accountability warped administrative and executive ‘culture’ and threat perception coloured the attitude of the judiciary for years. Victimization at the hands of both police and insurgents created risk-averse citizens who prioritized personal safety above all, while policies pertaining to state debt and industry impacted economic development.This book recounts the no-holds-barred struggle to suppress militancy that morphed into an unrestricted abuse of power. It details how militancy affected the credibility of the judiciary, why trials dragged on for 25 years, how militancy influenced the popular culture and how the youth are still responding to conditions in today’s Punjab.
This book is a study of the transformations in Punjab created by biotechnological revolutions, economic restructuring, persistent migrations, and political upheaval in the late 20th century. The sacred centre at Amritsar, the transnational settlement of Southall and a Doaba village form the terrain for this — three sites that can seen as metonymic spaces of identity that transcend geographic boundaries, and form the structure of this book. Relations between the rural, the sacred and the transnational, fostered through migration, marriage and material exchange, existed well before 1984. After 1984, however, and through the violent decades of the militancy period, these three locations became connected via the circulation of political ideologies, violent deaths, financial aid, a sense of disaffection, and the migration of men. Analysis of the linkages between transnational migration and religious revival is a key theme of this study. Conversely, the enhanced engagements of the diaspora with homeland politics became a source of support and created sanctuary spaces for political asylum seekers and transnational migrant labour. Re-analysing existing material and drawing on fieldwork-based interviews, as well as local history archives, the book presents a different framework to analyse the politics and social history of Punjab.
Introduction Return of Near Normalcy Truth Claims and the Politics of Justice Social Moorings of Knowledge / 21, Human Rights Interventions and Apologies / 23, An Assassination and the Demonization of the Community / 25, Framing of the Suppression / 26, Media and Conflict: Standards of Evaluation / 31, The International Print Media in Punjab: An Evaluation / 33, Elections to the Village Councils: The Fate of a Candidate / 35, Anti-insurgency Legislation / 38, Enforced disappearance of Mr. Bhatti: A Human Rights Lawyer / 41, Impunity under the National Human Rights Commission / 49, The Life and the Death of a Sikh Priest /58 The Becoming of a Nightmare-1984 The Democratic Interlude and a Debate on Decentraliza-tion / 86, Alchemists of the Turmoil-their Politics and the Patrons / 87, The Clash in Amritsar / 92, The Rise of Bhindranwale / 96, Humiliation of the Akalis / 99, The Agitation and the Negotiations / 106, The Confrontation / 113, The Operation Blue Star and the 1919 massacre at Amritsar-A comparison / 123, The Operation Woodrose and the carnage in Delhi / 126 The Operation Blue Star and the Peace Process: Spin Doctoring the International Media The Coverage Before the Operation Blue Star / 142, Approving the Military Action / 159, Labeling and Its Effects / 164, Sikhism as a Hindu Sect: Associations of Meaning / 170, The Coverage Between the July 1985 Accord and its Rescinding in January 1986 / 179 Black Thunder over the Golden Temple New Appointments in Punjab / 211, The declaration of Khalistan and the Operation Black Thunder I / 212, Delegitimizing Moderation / 214, Dealings with the Militants / 216, Lost Opportunities of Peace / 219, The Rode Initiative and the Dismissal of the Akali Government / 222, India's own 'Dirty War' / 225, The Rode Initiative at Work / 230, Operation Black Thunder II / 236 Deadends of Democracy: Khalistan, Terrorism and the Poll Boycott The Second Panthik Committee / 259, Simaranjit Singh Mann and The Case of Conspiracy / 263, The Elections in 1989 / 266, Failures of the National Front Government / 268, Confessions of an Undercover Agent / 280, Chandra Shekhar's Initiatives and the Aborted Elections / 284, The Poll Boycott in 1992 - the Deadend / 296, Restoration of Normalcy / 299 What is Sikh Dissent? The Akali Demands / 316, The Territorial Claims / 318, River Waters - the Elemental Issue / 329, The Center-States Relations / 343, Anxieties of Identity and the Akali Religious Demands / 349, The Sikh Origins / 350, Hum Hindu Nahin / 356, The Sikh identity and its Opposition / 362 This book takes the reader on a voyage into that terrain of recent history of conflict in Punjab which remains cordoned off by the barriers of knowledge raised by the mainstream media and the established scholarship on the subject. It shows how the terror was spawned, sustained and then suppressed behind those barriers. Probing the connections between mass atrocities and the miasma of hegemonic narratives, the book demonstrates that a socially deliberative space of plural understanding of political conflicts is the first prerequisite for the rectification of all abuses of power. Coming from a witness and the biographer of Punjab's recent history who remains dedicated to people's rights to truth, justice and reparation, the book deserves the attention not only of the students of political conflict and the media but also the community of human rights activists, academics and others who grapple with the issues of historical accountability worldwide.
V. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
The author, a former Special Secretary of India's external intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW), examines a series of interconnected events that led to the rise of the Khalistan movement, Operation Blue Star, the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1984 and the anti-Sikh violence unleashed thereafter. With a timeline that moves from seven years before to a decade after 1984, the book strives to answer critical questions that continue to linger till today. The narrative moves from Punjab to Canada, the US, Europe and Delhi, looking to sift the truth from the political obfuscation and opportunism, examining the role that the ruling party allegedly played, and the heart-rending violence that devoured thousands of innocent lives in its aftermath.
A provocative examination of how the British colonial experience in India was shaped by chronic unease, anxiety, and insecurity.
Punjab was the arena of one of the first major armed conflicts of post-colonial India. During its deadliest decade, as many as 250,000 people were killed. This book makes an urgent intervention in the history of the conflict, which to date has been characterized by a fixation on sensational violence—or ignored altogether. Mallika Kaur unearths the stories of three people who found themselves at the center of Punjab’s human rights movement: Baljit Kaur, who armed herself with a video camera to record essential evidence of the conflict; Justice Ajit Singh Bains, who became a beloved “people’s judge”; and Inderjit Singh Jaijee, who returned to Punjab to document abuses even as other elites were fleeing. Together, they are credited with saving countless lives. Braiding oral histories, personal snapshots, and primary documents recovered from at-risk archives, Kaur shows that when entire conflicts are marginalized, we miss essential stories: stories of faith, feminist action, and the power of citizen-activists.
This important volume provides a clear, concise and comprehensive guide to the history of Sikh nationalism from the late nineteenth century to the present. Drawing on A. D. Smith's ethno-symbolic approach, Gurharpal Singh and Giorgio Shani use a new integrated methodology to understanding the historical and sociological development of modern Sikh nationalism. By emphasising the importance of studying Sikh nationalism from the perspective of the nation-building projects of India and Pakistan, the recent literature on religious nationalism and the need to integrate the study of the diaspora with the Sikhs in South Asia, they provide a fresh approach to a complex subject. Singh and Shani evaluate the current condition of Sikh nationalism in a globalised world and consider the lessons the Sikh case offers for the comparative study of ethnicity, nations and nationalism.